A couple of miles south of the town on the A6 is medieval Haddon Hall. Described as ‘the most perfect house to survive from the middle ages’, beautiful Haddon Hall is the private residence of Lord and Lady Edward Manners, set in the Peak District in the valley of the River Wye.
Avoiding fire, warfare, family misfortune and changing fashions, little has changed over recent centuries and Haddon provides a unique view of early English life and history.
With nine hundred years of history, it is one of the oldest houses in the country and moreover one of the only houses in England to have remained in one family’s ownership for its entire existence.
Haddon is unique as it remained empty for nearly two hundred years. This extraordinary period, when time stood still in the Hall, allowed it to remain unaltered during the modernising period of the Georgians and Victorians
The Medieval Banqueting Hall remains furnished with its original Dais table, behind which hangs a tapestry gifted to the family by visiting Henry VIII.
In contrast to the Tudor and Medieval Rooms below, the light and airy first floor Elizabethan rooms culminate in the spectacular 110ft Robert Smythson designed Long Gallery; reputed to be one of the most beautiful rooms in England.
Haddon is also a famed filming location, featuring in no fewer than three different film adaptations of Jane Eyre and the recent Mary Queen of Scots film (2019) starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie!
